I bought this tin in December based on the name and tin art, and it was definitely better than expected. When I opened the tin and saw the loose broken flake and the marbled and consistent colors of yellow, burnt orange, and brown my mouth began to water. The tin aroma was like plump juicy raisins in a fresh made fruit cake. I did not bother with drying it out as it felt sufficiently dry to the touch as I loaded my first bowl after rubbing it out. Sipping the unlit full bowl brought the raisin taste to my mouth along with background notes of dark fruit.

My initial impression when I lit the bowl was that the blend was pretty bland other than a light spiciness which was most likely the perique. After my first tamp, the raisin-like taste came back full throttle with more of that underlying darker taste that danced from a dark rum back to a dark fermented fruit pulp. The taste of a rich, but not sharp, fruit cake is the best way I can describe this blend. These flavors stayed down to the light gray ash at the bottom of the bowl. I did not find this blend to have a long finish, but it did leave a nice and toasty room note. I found these traits consistent with every bowl I smoked from this tin and the delicious dark raisin flavor I come to love kept bringing me back for more.

I found after having this in my rotation for a week that I preferred it fully rubbed out in a briar, but enjoyed a whole flake stuffed in a cob or meerschaum. Note that I do tend to burn my cobs and meerschaums hotter than my briars. I will definitely be buying more of this to cellar to see how it develops with time.

The tin aroma has a strong tanginess to it that tickles the nose and makes my mouth water. It was accompanied by a light sweetness with a touch of spice. It smells great! The moisture content is perfect for smoking right away with no drying time needed.

At the start of the bowl the natural sweetness from the Virginia tobaccos is the predominate flavor. After about 1/4 of the bowl, the flavor started changing to a more richer, deeper tobacco flavor. There was still some sweetness to it, but the sweetness was moving to the background while the other flavors were moving towards the front. While all of this was going on, the Perique was slowly building up, and by the mid-bowl point it was very noticeable.

A little bit past the mid-bowl point, the Perique stepped forward and became the star of the show with its spicy/peppery flavor profile. Towards the end of the bowl, the Perique started moving back a bit while the sweetness was moving forward to share the stage.

This is a great blend that has some complexity to it. It smoked slow, cool, dry, and didn't bite. The flavors slowly change and they do it in harmony with each other while maintaining a nice sweet finish throughout the entire smoke. If you like VA/Per blends I think that you will really enjoy Exhausted Rooster.

From a fresh tin this is truely a great tobacco. This blend of broken flake is golden and smells great in the tin like rasin mixed with a touch of heaven!

Burns to a white ash right out of a fresh tin (no drying time needed) has a sweet flavor from the start from the virginias and developes rather quickly to a spicy peppery flavor. This blend would be best as a evening smoker with a good scotch/whiskey or strong coffee in my opinion. A nice oaky red wine would also do well with this blend. The perique really comes out halfway through the bowl and dominates the finish. Strong nicotene kick with thick smoke. The room note would be slightly offensive to the non-smoker but rather intoxicating to smokers. Overall this in my opinion is a top shelf tobacco for the experienced smoker.....aeromatic lovers need not apply.